Abstract
Transcription factors belonging to the family of ethylene response factors (ERFs) in plants function in disease resistance to pathogens. One of the tobacco ERF genes, NtERF5, inhibits the accumulation of tobacco mosaic virus (genus Tobamovirus) when overexpressed in tobacco carrying the resistance gene N. Here, we report that NtERF5 can function as a transcriptional activator through binding of the GCC-box in planta. We then determined whether overexpression of NtERF5 in tobacco lacking the N gene (nn tobacco) inhibited infection by potato virus X (PVX: genus Potexvirus). Transient overexpression of NtERF5 inhibited the accumulation of PVX without affecting virus spread and increased the transcript levels of NtPRB-1b and NtPR6, which are jasmonic acid/ethylene-signaling marker genes encoding pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins. Stable overexpression of NtERF5 in nn tobacco also resulted in decreased PVX accumulation and the induction of the expression of NtPRB-1b and NtPR6. Our results revealed that overexpression of NtERF5 limited successful infection and accumulation of PVX, suggesting the role of NtERF5 as a positive regulator of basal defense against virus infection.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge Dr. David C. Baulcombe (University of Cambridge, UK) for providing the binary vector pGR107. This work was supported in part by the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP19580045 (to Y.M.) and 11J08011 (to T.O.).
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NS and YM conceived and designed the study. HS, TI, TO, and YT prepared materials and performed the experiments. HS, TI, RSN, NS and YM analyzed the data. HS, NS and YM wrote the manuscript with edits and additional text from RSN, NS and YM.
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Suzuki, H., Ito, T., Ogata, T. et al. Overexpression of NtERF5, belonging to the ethylene response factor gene family, inhibits potato virus X infection and enhances expression of jasmonic acid/ethylene signaling marker genes in tobacco. J Gen Plant Pathol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10327-023-01166-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10327-023-01166-w